The present invention relates generally to printers and methods of reporting and correcting printer errors. More specifically, the present invention relates to providing current information on printer errors to allow those errors to be corrected or their future occurrence to be reduced.
Printers are well-known computer peripherals widely used in both home and business computing environments. Printer technology has made rapid advances over recent years. State of the art printers offer ever-increasing levels of speed, print quality, easily manipulated format options, and a wide variety of features, such as document collating, stapling, and various levels of print quality. Printers using Inkjet or laser technology are capable of reproducing almost any image. As printer technology advances, the process of printing a document from a computer workstation involves ever increasing numbers of steps. Errors can occur at any of these steps. It has become common practice to keep an xe2x80x9cerror logxe2x80x9d in the printer memory, to track printing errors and technical problems. The repair of inoperable or damaged printers can be aided by examining the error log for patterns of errors occurring prior to breakage. Typically, the error log provides only basic information on a print error; such as whether the error involved software, hardware, a lack of memory, or a physical problem such as a paper jam.
As it is used herein, the term xe2x80x9cprinterxe2x80x9d signifies any device capable of providing printer function alone or, alternatively, any device providing printer function in combination with one or more other document processing functions, such as, for example, copying, scanning, or facsimile capabilities.
Printer manufacturers provide technical support for printing devices, including software, hardware, and firmware upgrades to resolve problems that users have encountered with printers. Instructions on settings and usages that may reduce errors are similarly provided. Unfortunately, many printers are either under utilized or inefficiently utilized as users do not understand, or are not informed, of this information, which can allow for more trouble free printer usage. A user must be aware of both the availability of such an item, and that printer errors are of the type that would benefit from an upgrade, component replacement, settings change, or other information. Learning this information has traditionally required a user to research the manufacturer""s website and/or printed materials for information and to examine all available printer related upgrades and then check their details for desired characteristics. Monitoring printer error patterns requires users to keep track of all printer errors, which may be impracticable for some networked printers, or to examine and understand the printer error log. These activities may be beyond the abilities or merely beyond the xe2x80x9ccomfort levelxe2x80x9d of a casual computer user.
Printers are known in the art that provide instructions to the user on correcting simple physical problems, such as replacing an empty toner bottle or clearing a paper jam. U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,379, issued Feb. 6, 2001 to Lay et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,154 issued Jun. 25, 1991 to Ujiie et al. describe such printers, and are incorporated herein by reference. However, for more complex physical problems or other errors, these systems merely advise the user to contact a repair service. These printers thus fail to provide information on actions that may be taken to prevent or reduce the recurrence of error. Such actions may include the installation of upgrades to the software, hardware, or firmware associated with the printer; switching printer supplies to alternative inks or different paper, or making changes in document format, among other possibilities. A system or method that provides this information, especially one allowing the information to be continually updated would constitute a substantial improvement in the art.
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for providing information on printer errors, in response to specific printer errors. In one embodiment, a printer contains an error detecting device and a memory. If printer errors are detected, error messages are generated. The user may view the error messages, each error message contains basic information on the type of error that occurred, and a xe2x80x9clinkxe2x80x9d to obtain further information. By activating the link, the user can download information on that error from a remote computer over World Wide Web (Internet) or other network. information on printer errors is maintained and updated in a memory of the remote computer. The system thus provides the most current information related to each printer error. Methods of the present invention include providing a printer incorporating an error detector, linked to a network. The error detector monitors print jobs sent to the printer, generating an error message when an error is detected. Selection of the error messages makes information available on that printer error through the network from a remote computer where such information is maintained.